After $650 million worth of damage train service resumes to Superstorm Sandy ravaged Rockaways

The subway to the Rockaways is back up and running after the devastation left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
Photo by: Seth Wenig/AP

Seven months after Hurricane Sandy hit New York and an estimated $650 million in hurricane damage later, service to and from the Rockaways will finally resume, much to the delight of the local residents.

The superstorm flooded the Broad Channel and Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street stations, washing out 1,500 feet of tracks. MTA have said that its system sustained an estimated $4.755 billion worth of damage as railroad and subway lines, vehicular tunnels, subway stations and power and signal equipment were inundated with corrosive salt water writes CBS New York.

According to MTA, the new work included "installing a corrugated marine steel sheet wall 30 feet into the soft soil of over two miles of the right-of-way along Jamaica Bay to protect the track against future washouts and ensure the line is ready to handle future coastal storms," Gothamist.com reports.

Residents of the Rockaways have suffered through limited service since the Hurricane as the tracks were destroyed but now, normal service will resume for some 30,000 Rockaway commuters.

The first train left Howard Beach for the Rockaways at 10:30 a.m. on 30 May and, to commemorate the resumption of service, consisted of vintage R1/R9 subway cars which were first put into service in the 1930s. The train then ran to the Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street Station where a ceremony took place to mark the restoration of service.